Don't forget the people who survived Katrina

I know the anniversary of the storm's landfall has passed, but that doesn't mean your blogstress intends to forget about the lives ruined by the government's failure to protect and care for the million-plus people whose lives have been upended by Hurricane Katrina, the storm that devestated the Gulf Coast two years ago. Your ecrivaine had hoped to be in New Orleans for this year's anniversary, as she had for last year's but, alas, other work got in the way of her getting that far south.

On a joyful note, your Webwench did enjoy hearing, once again, the sound of New Orleans jazz as played by the Treme Brass Band (pronounced "tre-MAY"), only this time in Arlington, Virginia, as part of the wonderful "Planet Arlington" concert headlined by South African trumpeter and singer Hugh Masekela. The last time your net-tete heard the Treme players was during the jazz funeral in New Orleans last year that marked the one-year anniversary of the storm. The funeral was a symbolic proper New Orleans ceremony for all who had perished after the breach of the levees. Katrina is often called our nation's worst natural disaster when, in fact, it was a disaster wrought by humans. The storm would have been survivable if the levees had held, as they were supposed to, at the category 3 level to which Katrina had diminished upon making landfall in New Orleans.

Over at the blog, Comment is Free, that is part of the UK's Guardian newspaper site, your blogstress's former American Prospect bossman, Michael Tomasky, ran a stinging piece that recounts the timeline of devestation and disregard endured by the people of the Gulf Coast, thanks to the disengagement of the president of the United States.

Meanwhile, at The Big Con, the blog of the Campaign for America's Future, Rick Perlstein lifts up the rug to examine the post-Katrina contracting boom being enjoyed by the friends and family of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

Does shame even exist in the experience of these people?